


To Hunt A Machine

by sparklydog



Category: Original Work
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Animal-like machines, Gen, How Do I Tag, Inspired by Horizon Zero Dawn, Machines, Maybe the boys have a thing?, No Beta, One Shot, Written for a Class, light cursing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:46:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25315525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparklydog/pseuds/sparklydog
Summary: A group of young hunters try to bring down their biggest hit in months.
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s)





	To Hunt A Machine

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written for class and is around 2,000 words long.  
> OK! Before you read this, yes, I am aware at how much this seems like Horizon Zero Dawn. This story, like many others, are inspired by video games that I play. I still place this under "Original Works" because none of the creatures I describe are from the video game and entirely came from my mind. Yes, I know about the trailer for Horizon Zero Dawn 2 that introduces the elephant-like machines. I wrote this story months before that came out (April 17th to be exact) and, therefore, had no knowledge elephant machines would be introduced.

A young man lies crouched in the grass behind a tall metal structure. His short brown hair ever-so-slightly waving in the breeze. He wears a piece of metal chest armor, which appears to have been built from spare parts. If one were to look close enough, they would notice a light brown piece of fabric underneath the chest armor, most likely a shirt. The same goes for what covers his legs, armor built from scraps. His wrists are covered in metal as well, but these seem to have been built from one piece of metal. The armor covering his hands is like those that cover his chest and legs. His feet, however, remain bare. His skin is light, but tanned from long days in the sun. A frown graces his face while his green eyes are narrowed in concentration. A light dusting of freckles covers his nose and cheeks. On his back are two things: a metal bow and a metal spear. Both seem to have been hand-crafted and were worn with use. It is clear that if the man continues to use them without fixing the weapons, they could break soon. Strapped onto his back is also a quiver, filled with arrows of varying use. Some of the arrows were silver, some were black, and some were brown. The silver arrows had two varieties, those with blue feathers and those with red feathers. The black arrows held only one type, those with yellow feathers. Finally, the brown arrows were adjourned with white feathers.

The air was clear of clouds, a slight black hue hung in air. Polluted from a time long ago. The clearing was in a small area surrounded by large metallic structures. Little bits of shrapnel stuck out of the ground from where they had fallen as the structures had collapsed. Chunks of concrete were stacked in between the metal bars, stretching up into the sky. Panels of glass, both broken and complete, were in holes in the concrete. During this place’s prime, it would have been littered with people mingling about. Those structures would have been called ‘sky-scrapers’, although they had long since crumbled too much to really be called that anymore. Nature had long since reclaimed most of the structures, grasses and shrubs were entwined in them. Dandelions and other wild flowers popped up everywhere, some of which had obviously been recently trampled. 

The man peeks around the corner of one of the metal structures and observes the being in front of him. A large, metal beast stands before him. It was easily four times his size. The metal beast appears to be guarding smaller metal creatures, but they do not seem to be the same model. The large beast resembles what used to be known as an ‘elephant’. Long, sharp metal tusks curtain a long metal trunk all held in place by a massive metal body. The legs are particularly thick and could easily crush the man laying in wait mere feet from it. On the center of its forehead was a single, glowing blue sphere. It appeared to be using the sphere to look around, as it rolled in its place to glance at anything that would make a sound. The metal on this creature is silver, but caked in mud. It had clearly been through a lot. From his vast training, the man can put a name to the elephant-like creature, a _Stomper_. This is not the creature he came for today. His eyes peer past the Stomper, to the smaller creatures it was guarding.

The smaller creatures only shared one similarity with the Stomper ‒ the fact that they were made of metal. These creatures were about the height of the young man. They had long metal prongs on the tops of their heads, which crackled every now and then with a burst of electricity. They too had a blue sphere on their foreheads, used to watch one another and the Stomper. They had slender, lean metal legs and bodies that were clearly built for agility and speed. The ends of their faces, however, were an entirely different story. Where a mouth would be was a massive spinning blade. All of the smaller creature’s blades were currently aimed at the earth beneath them and were destroying the layers of soil. Apart from the spinning blade at the ends of their faces, these smaller creatures would resemble what were once called ‘pronghorns’. The man’s mind supplied him with their current name, _Ground-Breakers_. 

Off to the side, a sudden noise had the young man, Stomper, and Ground-Breakers jerking their heads in its direction. The metal creature’s spheres all turned a shade of orange in warning. The Ground-Breakers looked like they were on the edge of bolting, while the Stomper looked like it was on the edge of charging whatever was making the noise. The Stomper slowly started making it’s way over to where the noise had originated, the ground shaking with each step it made. As the Stomper disappeared around the corner of another metal structure, the young man made his move. Drawing a brown arrow with white feathers from his quiver with his left hand, he drew his bow with the other. He placed the arrow on the string of the bow and pulled back, the string going taut. He aimed his bow for one of the Ground-Breakers and released the arrow. The arrow flew true to its mark, striking one right in its sphere. The Ground-Breaker immediately went down, all color and signs of life disappearing. The prongs stopped radiating electricity and the sphere dulled. The other Ground-Breakers’ eyes turned red and they bolted, fleeing together as a herd. The young man slowly came around the corner to collect his prize, keeping his eye on the direction where the Stomper had gone moments before.

Just as he was reaching the Ground-Breaker, the Stomper charged into the clearing. Its sphere was red as it landed on him. Its trunk turned upwards and it blasted a large sound in warning to any creatures nearby. Then, it raised up onto its two back legs and let the front drop, creating a shockwave that the man was barely able to remain standing from.

“Shit!” The man shouted, abandoning his prize. He bolted back to where he had been hiding, with the Stomper hot on his heels. He dove to the side right as he reached the structure as the Stomper barrelled past him, its momentum rendering it unable to stop or turn with his sudden movement. The young man ran back around to the other side of the structure as the Stomper turned to charge again. He ran in the direction that the Stomper had gone to investigate before. As he heard a large crash behind him, he boosted himself to try and run just slightly faster. He knew what he would see if he glanced behind him. The Stomper had undoubtedly barrelled right through the metal structure he had been hiding behind previously. His guess was only proven when metal debris flew past him. An extremely brief glance behind him revealed that the Stomper was not chasing him, rather, it was flinging the large chunks of debris at him. 

As he rounded another corner, he took a moment to catch his breath. A clang was heard as chunks of metal bounced off the large structure he now hid behind. He looked up as another clang sounded in the area and a dent appeared in the structure. The young man’s heart pounded heavily in his chest as a third clang sounded and the dent grew larger. He held his breath, waiting for a fourth clang. After a few seconds of waiting, however, no clang sounded. Taking a risk, he poked his head around the corner. The Stomper was staring in his direction, but it's sphere’s color had gone from red to orange. It was now only giving out a warning and seemed to decide that a chase was unnecessary. He watched as the Stomper, sphere still orange, turned around and picked up his prize with its trunk. As the young man watched, he could still make out the shape of his arrow sticking out of the Ground-Breaker’s sphere. The Stomper took his prize and walked in the direction the herd of Ground-Breakers had disappeared in.

_Great. A lost arrow and a lost prize_ , the young man groaned at the loss. He placed his bow, which he had still been holding, back onto its’ place on his back. He turned and started walking in the direction the Stomper had been lured to earlier. As he walked further in that direction, he began to notice arrows of varying colors sticking out of the ground. Stemming from the blue-feathered arrows were small coats of ice on the ground. Small flames were still burning the grass from the ends of the red-feathered arrows. No black arrows were present, but small blast zones were littered around, indicating their usage. The most arrows seen around the ground were white-feathered arrows. He glanced towards the direction the arrows were fired from and frowned at the three others who were dressed like him were located. It was obvious that nobody had won today.

“So. Stomper managed to get away from you?” The young man asked, an eyebrow raising in question as he observed the others. The first to speak up was a dark man, with long black hair.

“Aleia alerted the Stomper too early, our trap wasn’t set yet. We had to rely on the few arrows that we brought and you know that only blast arrows can get through that thick machine” The dark man said. He was glaring slightly at a red-headed woman who was sheepishly looking at the ground and grinding her bare heel into the soil.

“To be fair, I thought that you guys had given me the signal, Mishka. Maliah wasn’t exactly helping” the red-headed woman, Aleia, responded.

“I wasn’t helping?! Excuse you, don’t try to blame this on me! We all had our parts to play. I was the lookout. Mishka was setting up the trap. You were supposed to lure the Stomper. Ragnar was in charge of coming up with the plan and taking down as many Ground-Breakers as he could” Maliah shouted. She had short-cropped blonde hair and her face was flushed red with anger at being blamed for their hunt failing. Out of the four present individuals, Ragnar had the most armor. Maliah wore a chest piece and had one leg covered. Aleia had only half of a chest piece and both wrists covered. Mishka was the second most-covered of the group. He wore a full set of armor on his chest and legs and two gauntlets. The only one in the group who wore gloves was Ragnar, who also had the most durable-looking armor.

“Enough! All of you!” Ragnar snapped, bringing the other three’s attention back to him. Mishka was the calmest-looking of the three. Aleia looked sheepish while Maliah looked flushed, crossing her arms angrily. Ragnar was looking at all of them with narrowed eyes, assessing each of them.

“From what I can tell, Mishka was the only one actually doing what was planned. Considering that I can actually see the results of his work” At this, Ragnar gestured over to a half-strung tripwire.

“Aleia, I wouldn’t be surprised if you fell asleep, again. Maliah, you were most likely piddling with your new piece of armor. You’re lucky I don’t decide to revoke it based on your performance today!” Ragnar snapped, his tone growing more frustrated and angry with each word. He took a deep breath to calm down and continued.

“This would have been our biggest hit in months. It took weeks to track down that Stomper and those Ground-Breakers and even longer to come up with a plan to take them down and acquire the materials necessary” He said. The others in the group remained silent, Mishka was the only one who could look Ragnar in the eyes. Aleia and Maliah both remained looking at the dirt, their faces flushed with embarrassment. Months of hunting for parts both rare and common had gone into their plan. They had traded spheres and scrap for other materials, like the wire that was supposed to have been used to spring the trap. The materials that they could not acquire from trading they had had to craft themselves, which they often did for arrows since they were so simple to create.

“Now then Aleia, since you alerted the Stomper too early, you are in charge of tracking it down again. Maliah you are to go with her, but make sure to leave markers. Mishka, you and I are going to head back to camp and break it down. We have a long journey to go” He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. Aleia and Maliah didn’t argue. Both of the girls whistled and the slight clanging of a metal beast could be heard.

The two beasts that arrived did not seem as threatening as the Stomper or Ground-Breakers. These two were shaped similar to the Ground-Breakers. They were lean, but their legs were more muscular. A large, long bundle of wires stuck out from the rear of the creature, but did not seem to have any actual purpose to helping the beast survive. Along the beasts’ neck was another large and long bundle of wires. They both had a single sphere on the center of their forehead, just like the other beasts. The only difference was that the color of the spheres were green. These beasts also possessed small ears, which were flickering around as they heard different sounds. Their mouths were also normal-looking. The most similar old animal that these resembled would be a ‘horse’, but their names were _Racers_. One of the beasts had a purple arrow painted on it’s rear, while the other had a white arrow. Both of the Racer’s had wires that had been braided into a bridle around their faces and down their necks.

Aleia approached the Racer with the purple arrow and took a small scrap of metal from a pouch on her side. She offered it to the Racer’s mouth, which it greedily took and consumed, a grinding sound accompanying it. Aleia braced herself and then jumped, straddling the creature’s back and gripping the braided bridle. Maliah did the same with the Racer with a white arrow, but she did not present it with a piece of metal. With a cluck from the two women, the Racer’s took off in the direction the Stomper and Ground-Breakers had disappeared.

“What am I going to do with them?” Ragnar groaned, crossing his arms and looking at Mishka. They started in the direction of their campsite. Mishka turned to look at him, a cheeky grin on his face. Maliah was the newest member of their crew and she seemed to be more trouble than she was worth so far. Combined with Aleia’s laziness, this type of incident was only waiting to happen. Perhaps picking up Maliah at the last trading town was a mistake.

“You could always feed them to a Grinder,” Mishka laughed, his hair being tossed around as he threw back his head to laugh. Ragnar laughed along with him. A Grinder was a creature that resembled an ‘Alligator’, but was used to grind large chunks of metal into smaller chunks that were traded.

“I wish” Ragnar mumbled. They reached the campsite, which was composed of four tents that were made out of thousands of wire strippings, woven together. Ragnar and Mishka had hunted for months in order to trade enough material for four of them. Ragnar started rolling them up while Mishka whistled. Two more Racers appeared at the tree-line. One of them had a blue arrow painted on it, while the other had a red arrow. Mishka gave both of the Racers a scrap of metal before turning around to help Ragnar break down the tents.

Ragnar took two of the rolled-up tents and strapped them to the Racer with a blue arrow’s hind quarters with a wire. Mishka did the same with the other two tents and the red-arrowed Racer.

“Let’s go get our Stomper,” Mishka stated. Both of the men grasped one another’s arm with a grin before mounting their Racers. With a cluck, the two were off, following in the machine prints of the other two Racers.

**Author's Note:**

> I know that this has an open-ending, but if enough people want me to continue it, it might happen. Please feel free to kudos, comment, and bookmark! I appreciate both criticism and encouragement.


End file.
